St. Mary’s baseball handles Williams

LYNN – The St. Mary’s baseball team picked a fine time to rediscover its potent offense on Friday.Heading into the final renewal of the Clancy Tournament this weekend, the Spartans will be one of the favorites as they rolled past Archbishop Williams, 15-1, at Fraser Field on the back of an 11-hit barrage.”Their pitcher (Tom Fitzpatrick) was undefeated in the league, so to come out and hit like we did against him was nice to see,” St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana said. “Our defense played a lot better and we’ve started to turn it around hitting a little bit.”The beneficiary of the offensive explosion was Sean Buckland, who picked up his third win in as many starts, allowing one earned run and three hits over five innings of work.”Sean threw very well,” Dana said. “That’s his third start and third win. He did a great job.”The Spartans (12-6) broke the ice in the second as Joe Kasper, who was 4-for-4 with three doubles and four RBIs, led off with a double. Steve Carroll was hit by a pitch before Bryan Wilkins grounded into a fielder’s choice that erased Kasper at third.Shortstop Zack Conti followed with a base hit that brought Carroll around for a 1-0 lead. Wilkins would score on a two-out wild pitch from Fitzpatrick for a 2-0 lead after two.An inning later, Kasper doubled to left with two down, scoring two more runs to make it 4-0, St. Mary’s, and the Spartans were just getting revved up.The fourth inning would be the Waterloo for Williams as everything came unraveled.Wilkins and Conti started the inning with walks. Ryan Barrows followed with a single that plated Wilkins. Alex Fiste then blasted a triple to center, scoring two more runs for a 7-0 lead.An error allowed Fiste to cross before Kasper doubled home Kurtis White. A passed ball scored another run before the final two runs of the inning crossed on an error to give the Spartans a commanding 12-0 lead.”We put the ball in play during that inning and good things happen when you do that,” Dana said. “Kasper had some really good swings and Fiste had that big triple.”The teams traded runs in the fifth before the Spartans capped the scoring with two runs in the sixth.